UNICEF: Children in Yemen hospital now threatened by fighting

A Yemeni child rides a bicycle past the remains of a destroyed building in Sana’a, Yemen, on June 27. File Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Yemen’s civil war is now threatening a children’s hospital in the port city of Hudaydah, the United Nations’ child advocacy agency said Wednesday.

The U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, said the fighting has placed 59 children in danger. Nearly half are in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“Intense fighting … is now dangerously close to Al Thawra hospital, putting the lives of 59 children … at imminent risk of death,” UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. “Medical staff and patients in the hospital have confirmed hearing heavy bombing and gunfire. Access to and from the hospital, the only functioning one in the area, is now imperiled.”

Fore said 40 percent of Yemen’s 400,000 malnourished children are in Hudaydah or surrounding areas. She said some of the sickest are being treated at the hospital.

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Joel Cholo Brooks is a Liberian journalist who previously worked for several international news outlets including the BBC African Service. He is the CEO of the Global News Network which publishes two local weeklies, The Star and The GNN-Liberia Newspapers. He is a member of the Press Union Of Liberia (PUL) since 1986, and several other international organizations of journalists, and is currently contributing to the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation as Liberia Correspondent.